Morning journal and courier., 1887-04-12
Tuesday, April I9, 1887.
HITS ON TRE DIAMOND.

Notes of Interest to Lovers of Ease
 BaIl-Captain ward on Pitching.
 A dispatch says that Umpire Garfield at the game in Bridgeport on Saturday be tween the local club.and the Jersey Citys um- pired an unfair and wholly partial game, and so enthusiastic was he that the Bridge port nine should win that the audience showed their disgust with such unfairness.
 After beating around the bush for some time Walter Latham, the great third-base- man dude, s'bluffer" of the St. Louis Browns, has at last signed in time for the worlds championship games.
 In the contest for the worlds champion | ship between the St. Louis Browns and the Chicagos the Browns have won three games | to the Chicagos' one.
 Joe Farrell will captain the New Havens.- ! Sporting Times.
 "All hail to the man or big boy who in | vented base ball." Thus speaketh Rev. Dr. Talnage, of Brooklyn, in recent sermon. Peter J. Donohue, who knows what he is | talking about every time, says: "Of all that has been said and written about the new playing rules, nothing that | have heard or seen shows the main difficulty. To my mind, no great trouble will be exper1- enced by batsmeu, batteries or felders, and  CTS that the new rules oppress; for scoring will this season be more matter of iudg- ment than ever before. Probably no two men will agree points of play and official scorers will have opportunities to favor home teams to a greater extent than heretofore. Stolen bases are now prime factor in the game, and believe that some players will have very big averages in this direction, while others who are equally clever in base steal ing and running will be discriminated against. I know that some scorers will de ny that there is such discrimination, but the fact is that it does exist.'
 A more unjust and deceptive rule was never made in the entire profession than that which gives man hit when he gets his base on balls. Every score published this season, as far as it relates to the batting per formed in game, will be false one, and of is printed. An objection to the new rule of giving base hit to 8 bats man when he gets his base on balls is the thought that the pitcher will be sorely tempt ed to hit the batsman when four bad balls have been called. By so doing he will save base hit being scored against himself. base hit should be scored when batter IS hit by pitched ball.
 In scoring under the new rules about every base secured by player, after he has once reached first, is credited as a steal. There seems to be but little satisfaction in this kind of scoring.
 The Sunday issue of the Sporting Times contained the only correct schedule of games to be played by the Eastern league teams: It is paper that no lover of sports should be without. It surpasses all others.
 Fogarty, of the Philadelphias, made the first home run of the season, in that city, and thereby won suit of clothes.
 Joe Hornung thinks that fme and Mike Kelly (ths $10, ,000 man) of the Bostons are going to get there this season."
 It will seem rather strange to Wizard Shaw, of the Washlngtons, to stand still in the box without doing his wind up-the-clock motions every time he delivers the ball.
 The inter State law will increase the penses of the American clubs $2, 300 year.
 In addition to what Johnnie Ward, the captain of the New Works, said about the new rules of pitching which was in yester days COURIER he further says: "One thing about a pitcher this year is that he must as we'll retire from the field. Formerly it was speed that was required. Skill and judgment were nowhere. Men fairly turned themselves inside out and took uncountable stet and jumps in order to get speed on the ball. The speediest pitcher was the best man and drew the biggest salary. The re- suit of ai1 this was that the younger men, with proper qualifications to become pitch CTS, were overlooked in the rush for men with more speed. Last season it was found that there were not near enough speedy pitchers to do the wo,k and then left-handed men became the demand. In almost every case the left hand man was wild. Why? For the simple reason that he wanted to get speed on the ball, and after dancing around in the box he would let the ball drive with the chances about even on it's driving hole through the batsman or being wild pitch.
 'The result of this speed was that the catcher had to suffer. Tkey were more or less crippled throughout the season and it became rare thing to find completely sound battery. 1 don't mean to say that the days of speed are over but I do say we will have fewer broken up catchers. Of course a catcher will be compelled to stand up un- der the bat the greater part of the time, but then his work will be when compared to what it was under the old style, and club will not be forced to have three or four catchers to one pitcher on it's team.
 ''Speedy pitching was developed when the overland throwing came into style. In get ting up speed by acrobatic contortions the wear and tear on the bodies of pitchers was terrible, and it was hardly charming sight to see man dance about in the box with his hands flying around in the air, and then sud denly stop as though exhausted from over exsrtion.
 ''In speaking of these two modes of pitch ing let's take Radbourne. He is a stand still pitcher, and can go in and pitch day after day Where is there a jumping pitch CT who can do it1 You can't find one. It is enough for him to do to pitch, at the most, two games week. Another position assum ed by pitchers in the box was standing with the back to the batter. This style was introduced into the league by me back in 1875. The league, however, made the rule which has just been repealed, re- quiring the pitcher to face the batter. This rule held good as far as l was concerned, but other pitchers have broken it ever since. They got around the rule by looking over their shoulder at the batter. In one sense of the word this was facing him, but you can plainly see that this rule was farce.
 "The sum up in few words, runner will be able to take more ground on pitch CT and do more base stealing, the batting will be more free, and the pitchers will be an honor to the game.
 "One of the most important changes in the pitching rules is the doing away with the high and low ball. This is one of the changes that the batsman does not like, but he will find that he will soon hit the ball, no matter at what height it may come to him. umpires that if the ball goes over any part of the plate, no matter if struck at or not, it is @ strike, and the league will no doubt issue the same instructions to its umpires.
 "The four strikes and five balls do not like myself, and think we should go back to the old three strikes and five balls. This change may be made after fair trial As far as I am concerned that is all that l ask"
 The Detroit base ball club yesterday signed George Weidman, late pitcher of the Kansas City team. Manager Phillips, of Pittsburg, was in Detroit after him, but could not get Ii -1kl IL